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I don't own that particular table saw but I'd guess that the riving knive needs to be removed. The procedure for doing that is almost certainly covered in your Owners Manual. Even though you didn't ask and forgive me for assuming but unless you plan on doing very deep dados you should at least look into getting a 6" dado set. Its much lighter weight will be appreciated by your motor and you'll still be able to achieve 1¼" deep dados.

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~~Don't worry about old age; it doesn't last that long.

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I use a 6" stack dado with my R4512 and remove my riving knife when I use it. Simply remove blade insert and there is a lever with an orange tip. Rotate that up. It takes some force. Pull out the knife and install your dado.

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Thanks for all of your quick responses, however questions remain. WRJ - do you pull the riving knife completely free of the saw? How much force do you use or is there some sort of 'trick' to it I'm missing. On page 43 of the manual it says, "Remove the ..... and spreader/riving knife" but doesn't say exactly how. Hewood - thanks for your response, however in the down position the riving knife still rides above an 8" dado set, preventing a complete pass over the blades, and putting the locking lever back down prohibits installation of the stack.
Finally, me5269 - unfortunately I'm stuck with an 8" set (purchased before all the good advice offered here)

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As WRJ said, move the lever up, Grab the top of the riving knife, move it to the right and it should pull up and off (you may have to wiggle it a bit). It's the same way you would change it from the UP to DOWN or DOWN to UP positions (there are 2 sets of holes in the knife that fit on pins in the clamp). Hope this helps.
Mike

EDIT, see page 26, it shows pic and how to move it from down to up, etc

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Thanks for all of your quick responses, however questions remain. WRJ - do you pull the riving knife completely free of the saw? How much force do you use or is there some sort of 'trick' to it I'm missing. On page 43 of the manual it says, "Remove the ..... and spreader/riving knife" but doesn't say exactly how. Hewood - thanks for your response, however in the down position the riving knife still rides above an 8" dado set, preventing a complete pass over the blades, and putting the locking lever back down prohibits installation of the stack.
Finally, me5269 - unfortunately I'm stuck with an 8" set (purchased before all the good advice offered here)

The other guys answered but yes, take the riving knife out of the saw and put it aside. Look at it this way, the riving knife keeps the cut halves from closing up on the blade as you cut through stock. But with a dado cut, you are not cutting entirely through the work piece. The riving knife couldn't get through the dado cut.

Also, I'm not sure of the exact force required to pivot the orange tipped lever, but, if I recall properly, it took quite a bit of effort to raise it the first time. There is no trick. Just pivot it upward using force. Once up, remove the riving knife as mentioned and leave the lever up and out of the way so the dado blades can fit.

Good luck

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Thanks to EVERYONE for weighing in on this - I have successfully extracted the riving knife! I knew it served no purpose in a dado setup, but didn't want to apply too much force in getting it out of the way. The Ridgid is a recent purchase, and a step up (a BIG step) from a 25 year old, direct drive Craftsman. Contrary to some others' experiences I've heard, mine was 'true' in every regard right out of the box - and I didn't want to break or screw anything up! BTW, been doing woodworking as a hobby for 30 years - and still have all my fingers! Thanks again to each of you for your responses.

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I'm using the 8" Irwin dado set from Lowe's. I know it's not the best quality, but it's what I could afford at the time (and now ). I haven't noticed any problem with my R4512 running the 8" stack. As the stack get's bigger, the noise goes down. I'm not sure if it's how the air moves around the blade when it's wider.

The riving knife is a bit of a pain for me. The lock is nearly impossible for me to engage/disengage by hand. I actually keep a pair of adjustable pliers nearby to flip it up/down. Getting the riving knife out (as you found) is not straight forward. I find that once I have the lock in the up position, I have to grab it with one hand, pulling it outward, while pulling up and wiggling the riving knife with my other hand until it comes out.